Rennes seeks its first European win against an OFI side riding high after its opening victory

Rennes opens the doors of its Roazhon Park fortress needing its first win of the Europa League league phase. Standing in the way will be OFI, arriving with momentum from a victory in its tournament debut and the distinction of being one of the few clubs already sitting on three points in this edition of the competition.

The two clubs started the competition in very different fashion. Rennes drew its only match so far (0 wins, 1 draw, 0 losses, no goals scored or conceded), while OFI won its opener 2-0, with goals from Georgios Kanellopoulos and Aitor Cantalapiedra, who currently top the club's scoring charts for this season's sample. That gap shows up in the standings: OFI sits ninth with 3 points and Rennes is nineteenth with just 1, a gap of 2 points between them. Still, it's worth not jumping to conclusions: with only one match played by each side, the table says more about how the points have been shared out so far than about the teams' actual level.

Look beyond the European competition at recent form, though, and the picture shifts. Over their last five matches, Rennes has racked up three wins, one draw and one loss, and OFI arrives with an almost identical record: three wins, one draw and one loss over that same stretch. Both sides are coming off a positive run, even if neither is exactly steamrolling opponents right now.

There's a curious detail shared by both clubs: according to 2026 Europa League trends (based on just one match played, whether at home or away), both Rennes and OFI kept a clean sheet 100% of the time. That said, this sample is separate from the tournament's own record and shouldn't be confused with it: Rennes, in fact, has yet to score or concede in its official tally for the competition. Rennes tends to find its goals in the first 15 minutes of matches based on that same sample, while OFI tends to score between the 16th and 30th minutes.

Probable lineups

Franck Haise could stick with much of the lineup he's used in recent matches, with Brice Samba in goal and a back line made up of Charlie Cresswell, Anthony Rouault, Przemyslaw Frankowski and Aboubakar Nagida. In midfield, Adrien Thomasson, Valentin Rongier and Mahdi Camara would be the likely trio, with Estéban Lepaul, Mousa Al Tamari and Issa Soumaré up front. This is an estimated lineup, with medium reliability based on available data.

On the Greek side, Christos Kontis's OFI would field Nikos Christogeorgos in goal, a defense of Achilleas Poungouras, Konstantinos Kostoulas and Kresimir Krizmanic, and a midfield featuring Lorenzo Dickmann, Andreas Bouchalakis, Thanasis Androutsos and Nikolaos Athanasiou. Up top, Taxiarchis Fountas, Kenan Kodro and Aitor Cantalapiedra would round out the probable lineup. In this case the reliability of the projection is low, so it should be taken with a grain of salt.

What the numbers say

Our model gives Rennes a 56% chance of winning at home, compared to 20% for OFI and 24% for a draw. It's not an overwhelming edge: Rennes shows up as the clear favorite, but the margin leaves room for an upset, especially considering OFI arrives with a win already under its belt. Expected goals back up that reading, with 2.05 for Rennes and 1.19 for OFI, an in-house estimate that should by no means be taken as a locked-in prediction or as betting odds.

With the home side needing to turn things around and a visitor riding the confidence of a debut win, the clash at Roazhon Park promises to be close on paper, even if the numbers tilt things in the hosts' favor.